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Review Summary

In October 2002 a Texas developer named Gary Bradley e-mailed The Austin Chronicle that all he ever really wanted to do was to make movies. It’s doubtful that the politely muck-raking documentary “The Unforeseen,” in which the developer persuasively plays one of the film’s villains, is what he had in mind. Mr. Bradley e-mailed the Austin newspaper after he declared bankruptcy, in the wake of a spectacular flameout. His story takes up a fair share of time in “The Unforeseen,” a film with a great big subject, or rather a handful of great big subjects, among them the rights of man, the death of nature, the water below, the air above and all that going, going, gone green in between. It’s a political film of sorts with no overt politics despite the on-screen, if fleeting, presence of Earth First!, the environmental group. Mostly it’s a slice of depressing regional history and a cautionary tale with global implications. In other words, this is a story about inconvenient truths and fighting the good fight against some very bad people. — Manohla Dargis